Legislative Issues and Advocacy Alerts

Anemia Drug Made Billions but at What Cost?

Posted August 22, 2012
Three anemia drugs — Epogen, Procrit and Aranesp — have been among the best-selling prescription drugs in the United States for years, generating more than $8 billion a year for their makers, Amgen and Johnson & Johnson. They were blockbuster drugs that stimulate your body to produce new red blood cells, which supposedly helped boost kidney and cancer patients’ energy and, ultimately, enhanced their lives. But now, after millions of people have taken these drugs, it’s come out that the benefits were “wildly overstated, and potentially lethal side effects, such as cancer and strokes, were overlooked.” Read more.